SINGAPORE — There will be a second permanent campus of Pathlight School from January 2023 to meet the growing demand for education catered to students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Second Minister for Education Indranee Rajah said on Friday (July 26).

The new campus at Tampines Street 91 will provide 500 additional places for primary school students with ASD.

Currently there are 1,400 places at the first permanent campus and interim campus, both in Ang Mo Kio, for primary, secondary and vocational track students.

Ms Indranee made the announcement at the opening of Pathlight’s Professor Brawn Cafe — an inclusive worksite at the permanent Ang Mo Kio campus.

The new Tampines campus, which will be located at the site of the former East View Primary School, will have an indoor sports hall, computer labs and a music room, she said.

“In deciding where to site Sped (Special Education) schools and campuses, one very important consideration that we take into account is whether the location will facilitate interaction with mainstream schools,” said Ms Indranee.

The site of the new campus was selected based on the geographical distribution of student demand for places at Pathlight and its close proximity to mainstream schools in the area, such as Junyuan Primary School and St Hilda’s Primary School, the Ministry of Education said in a statement.

Ms Indranee said a unique feature of the new permanent campus is that it will have an open community space that will promote interaction between Pathlight students and the public.

She shared an example of such interaction where students from Yio Chu Kang Secondary School involved Pathlight to plan and execute the orientation for their Secondary 1 students this year.

“This is important because such interaction and integration will give our youth a better understanding of special needs and equip them to interact with each other,” she said. “As the students grow in empathy, our society will grow in inclusivity.”

She added: “It is really about changing mindsets so that we do not see those with special education needs as ‘other’ but simply as people like us who just happen to have different needs.”

Ms Indranee also spoke about the importance of embracing those with special needs into the workforce.

“We should move from the current state of affairs to a position where employing someone with disabilities becomes the norm,” she said.

Although SPED is becoming more widely available, an area of concern is students’ employment viability once they graduate from school, she said.

To address this concern, Pathlight School and the Autism Resource Centre (ARC) launched the Professor Brawn Cafe as an inclusive worksite that will be part of the school’s curriculum to prepare students for the workforce.

Up to 50 final-year students in Pathlight’s secondary school and vocational track will undergo training at the cafe each year. 

The training curriculum will be rolled out in stages. Students are first assessed to see whether they are suitable, before training under the guidance of job coaches.

To date, 10 students have begun their internships at the Professor Brawn Cafe since its soft opening last month.

Members of the public can get their coffee fix from the cafe, where the students will assume the duties of baristas, servers and cashiers to build employability and vocational skills such as customer service, money handling and property maintenance.

It operates from Monday to Saturday, from 9am to 9pm.

Ms Denise Phua, president of ARC and co-founder of Pathlight School, said that the cafe is open to the public so that the job trainees are “exposed to the rigours” and “real-life demands” of a normal work environment.

Although literacy, numeracy and vocational skills are important, Ms Phua said that to thrive in the workplace, these students need soft skills such as the ability to understand work expectations, fulfill customer needs, adhere to the hygiene standard in the workplace and manage emotions and social communications.

“Employment is one of the keys to a good quality of life. Work enhances one’s financial independence, self-esteem, social inclusion and a sense of responsibility,” said Ms Phua.

The Professor Brawn Cafe at the Pathlight campus is the second outlet to open under the ARC.

The first one, which opened in Raffles Institution last year, serves only students and staff of the school, and half of its employees are workers with special needs. 

Commending the initiative, Ms Indranee said: “I am confident that many will be successful in their transition and I would encourage people to come here and give these young people business.”

She added: “In doing so, you will be helping to get them ready for work while you will get food and drink that is prepared with heart and passion.”